Not finding size 76 pants started man's weight loss effort

06:21 PM EST on Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Reported by: Kathryn Barrett

There aren't many pictures of Jon Jennings when he weighed 516 pounds. He didn't want pictures taken.

Last April, he began a weight loss program.

"The future at 516 pounds was death for me,” he said.

Jon was a mess emotionally and that was hard on his wife and family.

"Somedays, you know, I just wish he would stay at work because he wasn't happy at home. We weren't happy," said his wife Deb.

He was a wreck physically, too.

"I work on the 11th floor. A fire drill meant I had to walk down and I couldn't do that. But I didn't want anybody to see I couldn't do it. I would do it and, the next day, I was in severe pain."

Jon was addicted to food.

"It's a cycle of the food addiction. You want it, you eat it, you become embarrassed, ashamed, you become angry and then to cover that up, you eat," he noted.

The trigger to lose weight came while he was shopping.

"I went to the local big man's store and I could no longer fit in anything they had,” he said.

Then, he was watching TV and saw an infomercial that was his call to action.

"It was the Michael Thurmond six-week body makeover. Why they put six weeks, I don't know, but it's a lifestyle change."

Jon still follows the diet that spells out what to eat and when to eat. He’s lost 177 since then and wants to lose more. His goal is to weigh 185 pounds and run a marathon.

If he ever needs motivation, he pulls out an old pair of pants, size 76.

"I want to be healthy. I want to see my children graduate. I want to see them have their children and play with my grandchildren, grow old with my wife, travel and do the things we want to do. I want to have life to the full."

On the Thurmond plan, Jon eats six times a day, three meals and three snacks.

He and Deb follow the book to the letter, which includes customizing a diet plan and then sticking to it.

"That was our biggest change - learning to weigh out the food and measure up the food at our meals. Even a year later, we still do it because it's become a habit," he noted.

Jon doesn’t eat milk and breads, but the diet leaves many foods on the menu.

“I can have apple, pineapple, oatmeal. I can have carbohydrates- potatoes. It's all in how I fix it," Jon said.

The Jennings cook in quantity, making 35 meals on Sunday that they'll have for the week.

The result is a popular diet that makes sense to the Jennings and it’s an eating plan that the family can live with, too.

He’s already lost more pounds than his wife weighs. They both can fit inside one of his old jackets.

"I have a long way to go, but I've come a long way,” he added.